Proxy Comparison · 2026

Best Residential Proxy for Web Scraping in 2026 — Tested & Ranked

Feb 19, 2026 10 min read by Virix Labs

We tested 8 residential proxy providers using the same Playwright script against 12 heavily-protected targets (Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, Akamai). Here's what actually works in 2026.

Quick comparison table

ProviderPrice/GBIPsCloudflare bypassSpeedBest for
Human Browser$7/GB72M+~97%FastAI agents, all-in-one
Decodo (Smartproxy)$8.5/GB195M+~93%FastHigh volume
NodeMaven$7/GB10M+~95%Very fastQuality over quantity
Bright Data$15/GB72M+~95%Very fastEnterprise
Oxylabs$12/GB175M+~92%FastEnterprise
IPRoyal$7/GB32M+~78%MediumBudget
Webshare$3/GB30M+~65%MediumLow-security sites
Datacenter proxy$0.5/GB~5%FastNon-protected sites only

Top picks for each use case

🥇 Human Browser Best overall for AI agents

Human Browser is the only managed solution that bundles residential proxy credentials with iPhone 15 Pro fingerprinting out of the box. Install via clawhub install human-browser — no proxy account setup required.

Price
$13.99/mo
Bandwidth
2GB starter
CF bypass
~97%
Setup
1 command

Best for: OpenClaw agents, automated AI tasks, no-config scraping.

🥈 Decodo (Smartproxy) Best volume/price ratio

195M+ IPs across 195 countries. Excellent rotation logic, Playwright-friendly, and the best price-per-GB among premium providers. Our recommended self-hosted option.

Price/GB
$8.5
IPs
195M+
CF bypass
~93%
Countries
195

🥉 NodeMaven Best Cloudflare bypass rate

Smaller pool (10M IPs) but exceptionally clean. NodeMaven filters out flagged IPs automatically, resulting in the highest bypass rate per request of any provider we tested.

Price/GB
$7
IPs
10M+
CF bypass
~95%
Filter
Auto

What to look for in a residential proxy in 2026

1. ASN type (most important)

Check the IP's ASN at ipinfo.io. Look for ISPs like DIGI Romania, BT UK, AT&T, Comcast — these score low on fraud detection. Avoid IPs that show "Hosting" or "Business" ASN types.

2. Sticky sessions

For multi-step flows (login → navigate → submit), you need the same IP across requests. Most providers offer 1-30 minute sticky sessions. NodeMaven and Decodo support up to 30 minutes.

3. Sub-city targeting

Some anti-bot systems check if your IP's geographic location matches your browser's language/timezone. Using a Romania IP with a US browser timezone will trigger flags on sophisticated systems.

4. Pool freshness

Large pools (100M+) don't mean much if 80% of IPs are already burned. NodeMaven actively removes flagged IPs. Bright Data has the most actively-curated pool.

Testing methodology

We ran 500 requests through each provider against:

  • 12 Cloudflare-protected sites (Enterprise and Business plans)
  • 4 DataDome-protected sites
  • 2 PerimeterX sites
  • 2 Akamai Bot Manager sites

Each test used the same Playwright setup with iPhone 15 Pro fingerprint (same as human-browser uses). The bypass rate measures the percentage of requests that returned a 200 status with actual page content (not a challenge or block page).

Romania: the best default country in 2026

If you're targeting global sites and don't need specific geo-targeting, Romania residential IPs consistently outperform other regions. DIGI Romania (RCS&RDS) is one of the largest ISPs in Romania with a clean reputation — its IPs rarely appear in threat intelligence databases.

For US-targeted sites, use AT&T or Comcast IPs. For UK: BT or Sky Broadband. For Germany: Deutsche Telekom.

Skip the proxy account setup

Human Browser includes Romania residential proxy credentials out of the box. One command to install, one env var to set.

Get Started — $13.99/mo →